i fell in love, in love with you suddenly - liam/louis (side harry/zayn) - pg-13
Title: i fell in love, in love with you suddenly
Pairing(s): Liam/Louis, Harry/Zayn
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,471
Warning(s): Unbeta'ed.
Summary: AU. Liam's in love with the boy next door, Harry has his own boy problems, and Niall just wants beer and food.
Disclaimer: Nope. These are real people that I'm using for my own selfish reasons. I'm not sorry.
A/N: Hope you enjoy! Still expecting Katie to disown me for this!
It’s a few days before Christmas and Liam is sitting in his room surrounded by scraps of wrapping paper and ribbon. Chloe is in the corner of the room, making a mess with the tinsel as usual. Liam sighs and lets her carry on, because it’s not worth the sullen glare he’ll get if he takes it away from her.
Liam glances around at the small pile of gifts he has left to wrap, and the even smaller amount of supplies. He knew he should’ve gotten more tissue paper, and now he was to go out in the cold for more.
He gets up, shrugs on his coat, stops in the living room to tell Niall and Harry where’s he’s off to (he gets a grunt from Harry, and a “More beer! Fuck you Hazza, that’s cheating!”) tells Chloe to behave, and quickly shuts his door behind him before Chloe can follow him out.
His head is racing - thoughts of tissue paper, the damn glitter that seems to get everywhere, especially when Harry and Niall are being drunk wankers, and how many bows Chloe might destroy before he gets back - when he runs in to Louis.
Literally.
“Oh, Christ! I am so sorry! I didn’t see you! Are you alright?”
Liam is babbling and he knows it but oh my god it’s Louis and of course he would embarrass himself in front of his sexy neighbor and Jesus he should just become a hermit. Or better yet, a crazy cat lady. Wait, no, he’s a man. A gay man, but still a man.
“Liam, hey, it’s alright. Stop looking like you’re about to have a mental breakdown.”
Liam blinks and stares down at Louis. Then at Louis’ hands that are holding tight to Liam’s biceps.
He’s touching me. Oh god, I can die happy.
“Um, what’re you doing here? Don’t you have class?” As soon as Liam says it, he wishes he could take it back. How much of a creep can he be?
“My professor let us leave once we finished our exam,” Louis answers slowly, giving Liam a curious look, “Hey, are you alright? You look sorta flushed.”
“What? No, I’m fine.” Liam says quickly. “It’s just warm in here, that’s all.”
“Hm.” Louis releases his grip on Liam, grinning at him before turning and skipping up the stairs.
“See ya later, Liam! I have cookies to bake!”
Once Liam is done choking on his tongue, he stumbles down the rest of the stairs and out into the cold street, feeling the relief on his obviously blushing face.
He is so, so, screwed.
*
“Mate, you are so gone.”
Liam glares at Harry as he places the last piece of tinsel on the tree.
“Fuck you. I don’t see you getting anywhere with Zayn.” Harry blushes and throws an abandoned Santa hat at Liam.
“Fuck you! You’re supposed to be supportive best friend in this situation!” Liam catches the hat and chucks it back at Harry.
“You’re not being supportive either!”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m getting a beer. Want one?” Liam shakes his head. Harry gets up, stretches, and makes his way into the kitchen. Liam can hear him conversing with Niall as he cooks, and the cry that indicates Harry’s hand being slapped away from the stew again.
What little Liam knows about Zayn is from the one night Harry got extremely drunk and apparently forgot that he was keeping quiet about the whole situation. That there indicated to Liam how much Harry actually liked this guy, and didn’t want to get his hopes up by talking about it with everyone.
“He’s beautiful, mate, no seriously like I just want to cry when I look at him. And he’s a nursing student and he has tattoos and there’s one on his collar bone that I just want to lick, all the time and…”
“And what?”
“The most interaction we’ve had is him asking me for a pen and him thanking me when I all but threw it at his face. Niall was there, you can ask him. It was horrible.”
Niall nods in agreement, a sympathetic look on his face.
Harry sighs and mumbles something else.
“What was that?”
“He doesn’t even notice me.”
“How can anyone not notice you, Haz?”
“Well maybe he does notice me, but just honestly doesn’t like me.”
“I don’t think that’s it mate. He does stare at you an awful lot.” Niall adds, shrugging when Harry throws him a disbelieving look.
“He’s just so pretty.” Harry’s face crumples and he hides it in Liam’s shoulder, the way he would always used to when they were kids and someone had upset him.
“Oh, Haz. “ Liam scoots closer to him on the couch and strokes his curls until he falls asleep.
It’s Niall who breaks the silence.
“What about you, Li? Any luck on the sexy neighbor front?”
Liam glares at Niall, “You know there isn’t.”
“Oh my god, just tell him you want to fuck him and cuddle him and marry him and have crazy little babies with him.”
“Shut up.” But Liam’s not denying it because that’s exactly what he wants.
He doesn’t know how it happened. One day he turned around in his lecture to see who was making the racket in the back of the hall, and the next thing he knows he’s looking into the clear blue eyes of who quickly became the only thing Liam could think about. He began to look forward to that lecture more than anything. And then one day he stumbled into Louis in the mail room of his apartment complex and his life became a whole lot more complicated, because of course he’d live right across the hall.
Soon Liam couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Louis and his bright smiles and hear his raucous laughter and shake his head at his inability to wear socks, even as it got colder and there was fucking snow on the ground.
And yes, Liam would like to shut Louis up with his mouth sometimes, especially when he’s trying to concentrate in his lecture because he’s distracted enough in there, but he also wants to hear all about Louis’ day and ask what he’s majoring in and find out what he gets in the mail that always puts that fond little smile on his face. He wants to bake Louis things and tell him stories about his cat and Jesus fuck he’s in deep because he barely knows the guy, but he feels like he does, and it just feels right.
When he shakes out of his thoughts, Niall’s fallen asleep on the chair opposite the couch Liam and Harry are cuddled together on. Liam carefully extracts himself from Harry, throws a blanket over him and Niall, and makes his way through the apartment, flicking off all the lights. They’re lucky enough they got an apartment with a bedroom for each of them, he’s not about to have the place burn down.
That conversation was a few weeks go, and Harry was mortified when he realized he’d admitted all of his feelings for Zayn. Liam and Niall couldn’t promise him that they’d never speak of it again.
Liam calls into the kitchen, “How much time is left for the cookies?”
“Just a few minutes, did you remember to get the food coloring for the icing?” Harry comes back into the living room with an expectant look on his face.
“Shit, no. I forgot.” Liam cringes and waits for Harry’s response.
“Leeyum, you promised me snowmen!” Harry flops face down onto the couch and whimpers.
“Oh Jesus. It’s almost ten!” Liam exclaims, “And it’s cold!”
Harry just lets out a sniffle and turns his face so he can glare at Liam.
“You hate me.” Liam glares at Harry, but then softens at his expression. It’s a mixture of adorable hopefulness and actual disappointment. That, topped with the mess of curls, does Liam in.
“Oh my god, fine.” Liam grumbles and stands. “You’re coming with me though.”
Harry flails off the couch, landing ungracefully on the floor with a loud thunk, but not before smacking his knee on the edge of the coffee table.
“Mother fucker!” Harry whimpers and clutches his knee to his chest, “Oh my god, I’m dying!”
“Is he alive? If I leave the kitchen the food will burn!” Niall calls. Liam calls back, “He’s fine.” but furrows his brow at the sight of the blood already seeping through Harry’s sweatpants.
“Christ, Harry!” He rushes over and grasps at Harry’s ankle gently, and slowly rolls the leg of the sweatpants up as Harry continues to moan in pain. “You are nineteen, stop moaning like a baby.”
“You are so insensitive! Why are we even friends -Jesus watch what you’re doing I will rip your fingers off!” Liam rolls his eyes and looks up from where he’s prodding around the gash on Harry’s knee.
“It’s not even bad, calm down.” Liam gets up and starts to move towards the bathroom - ignoring Harry’s wail of “Are you leaving me to die, you wanker!” - when there’s a knock on the door. Liam moves to answer it (“Still bleeding, oh god I’m gonna puke.”)
Liam opens the door and stares dumbfoundedly at Louis, who is whispering furiously with the boy standing behind him.
“Um, yes?” Liam looks expectantly at Louis when he turns around, cheeks blushing a light pink.
“Yeah, um, we heard a crash, when we were in the hall, you know, and I, well we were wondering, if everything was okay?” Louis bites his lip, blushing a bright red now, and looks a tad bit like he’s going to pass out.
“Um,” Liam blinks at Louis, and the boy standing behind him, “My mate just took a spill off the couch and bumped his knee, he’s-“
“Dying! To death!” Liam snorts and thinks that an English major could come up with something better than that.
Liam rolls his eyes at the boy standing behind Louis. The boy is smirking at Liam, but also looks slightly intrigued.
“Harry, for the love of god, shut up! You’re not dying!” Niall says. Liam can hear him moving the stew off the stove and moving into the living room.
“Harry?” The other boy asks, a curious and almost excited look in his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s my mate.”
“I could take a look at him if you want. I’m actually a nursing student along with Louis here.” Liam nods slowly and casts a questioning look at Louis, who is now grinning like a madman. At least it looks like he’s breathing properly again.
Tick off What Louis’ Major Is off his Big Creepy List of Things to Know About His Sexy Neighbor.
He might’ve fallen a little bit more in love with Louis as well.
“This is gonna be good.” He whispers covertly to Liam as he passes. Liam furrows his brow in confusion as he lets Louis and the boy pass, closing the door behind them.
Harry is still moaning as Niall tries to comfort him when they all approach the couch. Niall looks up and gets a wicked smirk on his face.
“Zayn! What’re you doing here?” Harry’s eyes snap open and he shoots up out of Niall’s lap, barely avoiding giving him bloody nose. He stares at Zayn likes he’s the best and worst thing he’s ever seen.
And then just keeps staring even as a blush flushes his cheeks, and an amused silence falls over the group.
The silence is broken by the timer going off in the kitchen. Liam coughs, “That’ll be the cookies.” And escapes before he loses it at the look on Harry’s face. Louis and Niall follow Liam into the kitchen and all three of them immediately crowd near the shutters on the breakfast bar, trying to hear and see what’s going on.
Liam can see Zayn’s procured the first aid kid from the bathroom and is murmuring to Harry, making him laugh and softly respond, still blushing furiously.
“Is it always like this?” Liam whispers to Niall, who nods in assent.
“The only time it isn’t is when he’s answering a question in class. And that’s when Zayn stares at him. That’s why he doesn’t see it.” Niall replies, before turning to Liam. His face quickly dons a suggestive smile, and Liam shoots him a confused look. Niall merely raises his eyebrows.
Then Liam realizes he’s basically caging Louis into the counter with his body. Louis doesn’t seem to notice, as he’s still peering between the slats of the shutters at the pair in the living room. But Liam notices. He can feel every part of his body that’s pressed against Louis, and it feels like he’s on fire.
“Um,” He steps back and away from Louis, despite his minds protests. Louis turns to him expectantly.
“The cookies. I need to get them.” Shut up, shut up, shut up.
“…Okay.” Louis says, a small smile on his face. Niall, the stupid fucker, is laughing to himself over in the corner. Liam turns and opens the oven, grabbing blindly for the cookies.
Because he would, he really would. Because Louis is here, in his apartment, and that’s fucking with all of his thought processes.
Burning his hand was just bound to happen, wasn’t it?
“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”Liam throws the baking sheet onto the counter and stares incredulously at his hand. He barely feels Louis up against him, ushering him towards the sink, and forcing his hand under the cool stream of water. He lets out a little whimper at the little bit of relief he gets, but closes his eyes against the pain he can still feel.
“Christ, Liam,” Louis mutters, “What were you thinking?” Liam shakes his head - I wasn’t. - and relaxes back against Louis.
He vaguely hears Niall leave the room to ask Zayn for the burn cream in the first aid kit (he’s glad he was so adamant about having that thing) but focuses mainly on Louis’ proximity to him.
Louis is standing curved around Liam’s right side, right hand grasping Liam’s wrist to keep his injured hand under the stream of water, his left hand placed at the small of Liam’s back, thumb occasionally smoothing up his spine in comfort.
Liam opens his eyes and glances to the side at Louis, quickly jerking his eyes to stare at the grip Louis has on his wrist when he realizes Louis is staring back at him.
“Should be enough,” Louis murmurs, tugging lightly at Liam’s wrist to remove his hand from the stream of water. “Don’t move.” Louis lets go of Liam’s wrist long enough to shut the water off and grab a few paper towels, also accepting the antiseptic cream that Niall handed to him. He swipes a paper towel gently over Liam’s palm and fingers, and deftly opens the tube of cream with his other hand.
Liam’s heart flutters as Louis’ fingers move softly over his own, rubbing in the cream lightly. He has to remind himself to breathe.
“There.” Louis says quietly, setting the tube to the side and inspecting Liam’s hand closely.
“Thanks.” Liam whispers, not doing anything to take his wrist back. Louis looks up at Liam and smiles.
“Of course. Just be more careful next time, yeah? As much as I love to flaunt my fabulous nursing skills, I’d rather not see someone I c- um, anyone get hurt.” Louis flushes suddenly and drops Liam’s wrist, taking a step away from him. Liam’s wrist feels too cold without the contact.
He hears a cough and he and Louis look simultaneously at Niall, who is sporting a shit eating grin.
“You guys might want to see this.” Niall gestures to the shutters, and they immediately crowd together to peer through the slats.
“Oh fuck him.” Liam mutters, glaring at the picture of Zayn and Harry kissing sweetly.
Louis snickers and glances at the other boys before grabbing the shutters and flinging them open.
“Well hellooooooooo there!” He cries. Zayn and Harry jerk apart, each blushing furiously. Liam and Niall collapse against each other in laughter as Louis skids around the corner and flings himself onto Zayn’s back.
“Zayney! How dare you betray me like this!” Zayn laughs before easily shrugging out of Louis’ hold.
“Hands off you tit.” Zayn helps Harry up off the ground and onto the couch, settling down next to him and accepting the leg Harry throws over his lap, fingers absentmindedly stroking the bandage carefully taped over his knee. Louis pouts up at them from the floor before turning to Niall and Liam with beseeching eyes.
“No one loves me!”
Niall coughs and Liam glares at him. Like, so hard his eyeballs hurt a little.
“You alright mate? You seem to be coughing an awful lot.” Louis actually looks concerned, and fuck, Liam really can’t take much more of this.
“Nah, I’m alright. We were about to eat and watch Rudolph if you guys are interested.”
Zayn doesn’t look up from where he’s pressing a smiling kiss into Harry’s neck, but Louis nods. “Sounds fantastic!”
Liam turns to go to his bedroom to grab extra blankets and pillows because there is no way he is sitting on the couch with Zayn and Harry being that disgustingly cute and Niall always sits in the chair. If he’s being forced to sit on the floor he’ll at least be comfortable.
“What, you’re not watching?” Liam turns at Louis’ question, startled at the disappoint clear on his face.
“I’m just getting a quilt. I’ll be right back.” Liam explains, reminding himself, once again, to breathe. It’s just hard to remember with all of Louis’ attention focused on just him.
“Oh! I’ll help you!” Louis jumps up and bounds over to Liam before he can respond. He trails behind Liam, waiting until they’re in Liam’s room before speaking.
“I’m glad Zayn finally made a move.” Liam laughs and starts rummaging through his closet, he knows he has a few quilts his mum forced him to bring when he moved out.
“I’d think Harry is a bit relieved himself. He was convinced Zayn hated him.” Louis barks out a laugh. Liam smiles at that and yanks out the quilts triumphantly.
“Oh Christ no. Zayn has been talking nonstop about Harry for, what, two months now?” Liam turns and sees a wistful look on Louis’ face.
“What is it?” Liam asks softly. Louis shrugs and gives Liam a small smile.
“Just wish someone liked me as much as Zayn likes Harry, is all.” He stares at Liam and Liam can only imagine the look on his own face. He opens his mouth, to do what, he’s not sure (tell Louis he’s beautiful, tell him he loves him, how about he just vomits his feelings everywhere) but then Louis is moving closer and Liam snaps his mouth shut, swallowing hard and hoping to god he’s not blushing again.
He startles when he feels Louis’ cold fingers encircle his wrist, bringing his burnt hand into the light. His pulse throbs and how can Louis not realize what he does to people. What he’s doing to Liam.
“Try not to do much with this and for the next few days. You don’t want to irritate the blisters.” Louis says, releasing Liam’s wrist and stepping back. He picks up the pile of quilts Liam had placed on his bed, and moves toward the door, humming a tune under his breath. He stops in the doorway and looks over his shoulder at Liam.
“Coming?”
Liam nods and moves closer to Louis.
“Louis, wait a sec,” And before Liam can think about it anymore, he gently pushes into Louis’ space and covers his mouth with his own. Louis doesn’t respond for a second and Liam is about to pull away, because what was he thinking, shitshitshit, but then Louis’ dropping the quilts and tangling his hands in Liam’s hair, opening his mouth under Liam’s.
Liams gasps and grips Louis’ waist hard with his good hand. He’s about to just tug Louis back into his room , fuck watching the movie, but Niall pops up at the end of the hall.
“Oi, mate! That’s wonderful for you and all, but this is tradition, and Harry’s getting teary.”
“Am not!” Liam and Louis break apart, laughing at Harry’s protests and Zayn and Niall’s laughter.
Liam stares at Louis and whispers, “I like you as much as Zayn likes Harry.”
Louis grins and opens his mouth to respond, but Liam cuts him off.
“I’m kind of in love with you, Louis Tomlinson.”
Louis grins even wider - his eyes get all squinty in that way Liam loves but has only gotten to witness a few times - and he responds, “I’m kind of in love with you too, Liam Payne.”
Pairing(s): Liam/Louis, Harry/Zayn
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3,471
Warning(s): Unbeta'ed.
Summary: AU. Liam's in love with the boy next door, Harry has his own boy problems, and Niall just wants beer and food.
Disclaimer: Nope. These are real people that I'm using for my own selfish reasons. I'm not sorry.
A/N: Hope you enjoy! Still expecting Katie to disown me for this!
It’s a few days before Christmas and Liam is sitting in his room surrounded by scraps of wrapping paper and ribbon. Chloe is in the corner of the room, making a mess with the tinsel as usual. Liam sighs and lets her carry on, because it’s not worth the sullen glare he’ll get if he takes it away from her.
Liam glances around at the small pile of gifts he has left to wrap, and the even smaller amount of supplies. He knew he should’ve gotten more tissue paper, and now he was to go out in the cold for more.
He gets up, shrugs on his coat, stops in the living room to tell Niall and Harry where’s he’s off to (he gets a grunt from Harry, and a “More beer! Fuck you Hazza, that’s cheating!”) tells Chloe to behave, and quickly shuts his door behind him before Chloe can follow him out.
His head is racing - thoughts of tissue paper, the damn glitter that seems to get everywhere, especially when Harry and Niall are being drunk wankers, and how many bows Chloe might destroy before he gets back - when he runs in to Louis.
Literally.
“Oh, Christ! I am so sorry! I didn’t see you! Are you alright?”
Liam is babbling and he knows it but oh my god it’s Louis and of course he would embarrass himself in front of his sexy neighbor and Jesus he should just become a hermit. Or better yet, a crazy cat lady. Wait, no, he’s a man. A gay man, but still a man.
“Liam, hey, it’s alright. Stop looking like you’re about to have a mental breakdown.”
Liam blinks and stares down at Louis. Then at Louis’ hands that are holding tight to Liam’s biceps.
He’s touching me. Oh god, I can die happy.
“Um, what’re you doing here? Don’t you have class?” As soon as Liam says it, he wishes he could take it back. How much of a creep can he be?
“My professor let us leave once we finished our exam,” Louis answers slowly, giving Liam a curious look, “Hey, are you alright? You look sorta flushed.”
“What? No, I’m fine.” Liam says quickly. “It’s just warm in here, that’s all.”
“Hm.” Louis releases his grip on Liam, grinning at him before turning and skipping up the stairs.
“See ya later, Liam! I have cookies to bake!”
Once Liam is done choking on his tongue, he stumbles down the rest of the stairs and out into the cold street, feeling the relief on his obviously blushing face.
He is so, so, screwed.
*
“Mate, you are so gone.”
Liam glares at Harry as he places the last piece of tinsel on the tree.
“Fuck you. I don’t see you getting anywhere with Zayn.” Harry blushes and throws an abandoned Santa hat at Liam.
“Fuck you! You’re supposed to be supportive best friend in this situation!” Liam catches the hat and chucks it back at Harry.
“You’re not being supportive either!”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m getting a beer. Want one?” Liam shakes his head. Harry gets up, stretches, and makes his way into the kitchen. Liam can hear him conversing with Niall as he cooks, and the cry that indicates Harry’s hand being slapped away from the stew again.
What little Liam knows about Zayn is from the one night Harry got extremely drunk and apparently forgot that he was keeping quiet about the whole situation. That there indicated to Liam how much Harry actually liked this guy, and didn’t want to get his hopes up by talking about it with everyone.
“He’s beautiful, mate, no seriously like I just want to cry when I look at him. And he’s a nursing student and he has tattoos and there’s one on his collar bone that I just want to lick, all the time and…”
“And what?”
“The most interaction we’ve had is him asking me for a pen and him thanking me when I all but threw it at his face. Niall was there, you can ask him. It was horrible.”
Niall nods in agreement, a sympathetic look on his face.
Harry sighs and mumbles something else.
“What was that?”
“He doesn’t even notice me.”
“How can anyone not notice you, Haz?”
“Well maybe he does notice me, but just honestly doesn’t like me.”
“I don’t think that’s it mate. He does stare at you an awful lot.” Niall adds, shrugging when Harry throws him a disbelieving look.
“He’s just so pretty.” Harry’s face crumples and he hides it in Liam’s shoulder, the way he would always used to when they were kids and someone had upset him.
“Oh, Haz. “ Liam scoots closer to him on the couch and strokes his curls until he falls asleep.
It’s Niall who breaks the silence.
“What about you, Li? Any luck on the sexy neighbor front?”
Liam glares at Niall, “You know there isn’t.”
“Oh my god, just tell him you want to fuck him and cuddle him and marry him and have crazy little babies with him.”
“Shut up.” But Liam’s not denying it because that’s exactly what he wants.
He doesn’t know how it happened. One day he turned around in his lecture to see who was making the racket in the back of the hall, and the next thing he knows he’s looking into the clear blue eyes of who quickly became the only thing Liam could think about. He began to look forward to that lecture more than anything. And then one day he stumbled into Louis in the mail room of his apartment complex and his life became a whole lot more complicated, because of course he’d live right across the hall.
Soon Liam couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Louis and his bright smiles and hear his raucous laughter and shake his head at his inability to wear socks, even as it got colder and there was fucking snow on the ground.
And yes, Liam would like to shut Louis up with his mouth sometimes, especially when he’s trying to concentrate in his lecture because he’s distracted enough in there, but he also wants to hear all about Louis’ day and ask what he’s majoring in and find out what he gets in the mail that always puts that fond little smile on his face. He wants to bake Louis things and tell him stories about his cat and Jesus fuck he’s in deep because he barely knows the guy, but he feels like he does, and it just feels right.
When he shakes out of his thoughts, Niall’s fallen asleep on the chair opposite the couch Liam and Harry are cuddled together on. Liam carefully extracts himself from Harry, throws a blanket over him and Niall, and makes his way through the apartment, flicking off all the lights. They’re lucky enough they got an apartment with a bedroom for each of them, he’s not about to have the place burn down.
That conversation was a few weeks go, and Harry was mortified when he realized he’d admitted all of his feelings for Zayn. Liam and Niall couldn’t promise him that they’d never speak of it again.
Liam calls into the kitchen, “How much time is left for the cookies?”
“Just a few minutes, did you remember to get the food coloring for the icing?” Harry comes back into the living room with an expectant look on his face.
“Shit, no. I forgot.” Liam cringes and waits for Harry’s response.
“Leeyum, you promised me snowmen!” Harry flops face down onto the couch and whimpers.
“Oh Jesus. It’s almost ten!” Liam exclaims, “And it’s cold!”
Harry just lets out a sniffle and turns his face so he can glare at Liam.
“You hate me.” Liam glares at Harry, but then softens at his expression. It’s a mixture of adorable hopefulness and actual disappointment. That, topped with the mess of curls, does Liam in.
“Oh my god, fine.” Liam grumbles and stands. “You’re coming with me though.”
Harry flails off the couch, landing ungracefully on the floor with a loud thunk, but not before smacking his knee on the edge of the coffee table.
“Mother fucker!” Harry whimpers and clutches his knee to his chest, “Oh my god, I’m dying!”
“Is he alive? If I leave the kitchen the food will burn!” Niall calls. Liam calls back, “He’s fine.” but furrows his brow at the sight of the blood already seeping through Harry’s sweatpants.
“Christ, Harry!” He rushes over and grasps at Harry’s ankle gently, and slowly rolls the leg of the sweatpants up as Harry continues to moan in pain. “You are nineteen, stop moaning like a baby.”
“You are so insensitive! Why are we even friends -Jesus watch what you’re doing I will rip your fingers off!” Liam rolls his eyes and looks up from where he’s prodding around the gash on Harry’s knee.
“It’s not even bad, calm down.” Liam gets up and starts to move towards the bathroom - ignoring Harry’s wail of “Are you leaving me to die, you wanker!” - when there’s a knock on the door. Liam moves to answer it (“Still bleeding, oh god I’m gonna puke.”)
Liam opens the door and stares dumbfoundedly at Louis, who is whispering furiously with the boy standing behind him.
“Um, yes?” Liam looks expectantly at Louis when he turns around, cheeks blushing a light pink.
“Yeah, um, we heard a crash, when we were in the hall, you know, and I, well we were wondering, if everything was okay?” Louis bites his lip, blushing a bright red now, and looks a tad bit like he’s going to pass out.
“Um,” Liam blinks at Louis, and the boy standing behind him, “My mate just took a spill off the couch and bumped his knee, he’s-“
“Dying! To death!” Liam snorts and thinks that an English major could come up with something better than that.
Liam rolls his eyes at the boy standing behind Louis. The boy is smirking at Liam, but also looks slightly intrigued.
“Harry, for the love of god, shut up! You’re not dying!” Niall says. Liam can hear him moving the stew off the stove and moving into the living room.
“Harry?” The other boy asks, a curious and almost excited look in his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s my mate.”
“I could take a look at him if you want. I’m actually a nursing student along with Louis here.” Liam nods slowly and casts a questioning look at Louis, who is now grinning like a madman. At least it looks like he’s breathing properly again.
Tick off What Louis’ Major Is off his Big Creepy List of Things to Know About His Sexy Neighbor.
He might’ve fallen a little bit more in love with Louis as well.
“This is gonna be good.” He whispers covertly to Liam as he passes. Liam furrows his brow in confusion as he lets Louis and the boy pass, closing the door behind them.
Harry is still moaning as Niall tries to comfort him when they all approach the couch. Niall looks up and gets a wicked smirk on his face.
“Zayn! What’re you doing here?” Harry’s eyes snap open and he shoots up out of Niall’s lap, barely avoiding giving him bloody nose. He stares at Zayn likes he’s the best and worst thing he’s ever seen.
And then just keeps staring even as a blush flushes his cheeks, and an amused silence falls over the group.
The silence is broken by the timer going off in the kitchen. Liam coughs, “That’ll be the cookies.” And escapes before he loses it at the look on Harry’s face. Louis and Niall follow Liam into the kitchen and all three of them immediately crowd near the shutters on the breakfast bar, trying to hear and see what’s going on.
Liam can see Zayn’s procured the first aid kid from the bathroom and is murmuring to Harry, making him laugh and softly respond, still blushing furiously.
“Is it always like this?” Liam whispers to Niall, who nods in assent.
“The only time it isn’t is when he’s answering a question in class. And that’s when Zayn stares at him. That’s why he doesn’t see it.” Niall replies, before turning to Liam. His face quickly dons a suggestive smile, and Liam shoots him a confused look. Niall merely raises his eyebrows.
Then Liam realizes he’s basically caging Louis into the counter with his body. Louis doesn’t seem to notice, as he’s still peering between the slats of the shutters at the pair in the living room. But Liam notices. He can feel every part of his body that’s pressed against Louis, and it feels like he’s on fire.
“Um,” He steps back and away from Louis, despite his minds protests. Louis turns to him expectantly.
“The cookies. I need to get them.” Shut up, shut up, shut up.
“…Okay.” Louis says, a small smile on his face. Niall, the stupid fucker, is laughing to himself over in the corner. Liam turns and opens the oven, grabbing blindly for the cookies.
Because he would, he really would. Because Louis is here, in his apartment, and that’s fucking with all of his thought processes.
Burning his hand was just bound to happen, wasn’t it?
“Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!”Liam throws the baking sheet onto the counter and stares incredulously at his hand. He barely feels Louis up against him, ushering him towards the sink, and forcing his hand under the cool stream of water. He lets out a little whimper at the little bit of relief he gets, but closes his eyes against the pain he can still feel.
“Christ, Liam,” Louis mutters, “What were you thinking?” Liam shakes his head - I wasn’t. - and relaxes back against Louis.
He vaguely hears Niall leave the room to ask Zayn for the burn cream in the first aid kit (he’s glad he was so adamant about having that thing) but focuses mainly on Louis’ proximity to him.
Louis is standing curved around Liam’s right side, right hand grasping Liam’s wrist to keep his injured hand under the stream of water, his left hand placed at the small of Liam’s back, thumb occasionally smoothing up his spine in comfort.
Liam opens his eyes and glances to the side at Louis, quickly jerking his eyes to stare at the grip Louis has on his wrist when he realizes Louis is staring back at him.
“Should be enough,” Louis murmurs, tugging lightly at Liam’s wrist to remove his hand from the stream of water. “Don’t move.” Louis lets go of Liam’s wrist long enough to shut the water off and grab a few paper towels, also accepting the antiseptic cream that Niall handed to him. He swipes a paper towel gently over Liam’s palm and fingers, and deftly opens the tube of cream with his other hand.
Liam’s heart flutters as Louis’ fingers move softly over his own, rubbing in the cream lightly. He has to remind himself to breathe.
“There.” Louis says quietly, setting the tube to the side and inspecting Liam’s hand closely.
“Thanks.” Liam whispers, not doing anything to take his wrist back. Louis looks up at Liam and smiles.
“Of course. Just be more careful next time, yeah? As much as I love to flaunt my fabulous nursing skills, I’d rather not see someone I c- um, anyone get hurt.” Louis flushes suddenly and drops Liam’s wrist, taking a step away from him. Liam’s wrist feels too cold without the contact.
He hears a cough and he and Louis look simultaneously at Niall, who is sporting a shit eating grin.
“You guys might want to see this.” Niall gestures to the shutters, and they immediately crowd together to peer through the slats.
“Oh fuck him.” Liam mutters, glaring at the picture of Zayn and Harry kissing sweetly.
Louis snickers and glances at the other boys before grabbing the shutters and flinging them open.
“Well hellooooooooo there!” He cries. Zayn and Harry jerk apart, each blushing furiously. Liam and Niall collapse against each other in laughter as Louis skids around the corner and flings himself onto Zayn’s back.
“Zayney! How dare you betray me like this!” Zayn laughs before easily shrugging out of Louis’ hold.
“Hands off you tit.” Zayn helps Harry up off the ground and onto the couch, settling down next to him and accepting the leg Harry throws over his lap, fingers absentmindedly stroking the bandage carefully taped over his knee. Louis pouts up at them from the floor before turning to Niall and Liam with beseeching eyes.
“No one loves me!”
Niall coughs and Liam glares at him. Like, so hard his eyeballs hurt a little.
“You alright mate? You seem to be coughing an awful lot.” Louis actually looks concerned, and fuck, Liam really can’t take much more of this.
“Nah, I’m alright. We were about to eat and watch Rudolph if you guys are interested.”
Zayn doesn’t look up from where he’s pressing a smiling kiss into Harry’s neck, but Louis nods. “Sounds fantastic!”
Liam turns to go to his bedroom to grab extra blankets and pillows because there is no way he is sitting on the couch with Zayn and Harry being that disgustingly cute and Niall always sits in the chair. If he’s being forced to sit on the floor he’ll at least be comfortable.
“What, you’re not watching?” Liam turns at Louis’ question, startled at the disappoint clear on his face.
“I’m just getting a quilt. I’ll be right back.” Liam explains, reminding himself, once again, to breathe. It’s just hard to remember with all of Louis’ attention focused on just him.
“Oh! I’ll help you!” Louis jumps up and bounds over to Liam before he can respond. He trails behind Liam, waiting until they’re in Liam’s room before speaking.
“I’m glad Zayn finally made a move.” Liam laughs and starts rummaging through his closet, he knows he has a few quilts his mum forced him to bring when he moved out.
“I’d think Harry is a bit relieved himself. He was convinced Zayn hated him.” Louis barks out a laugh. Liam smiles at that and yanks out the quilts triumphantly.
“Oh Christ no. Zayn has been talking nonstop about Harry for, what, two months now?” Liam turns and sees a wistful look on Louis’ face.
“What is it?” Liam asks softly. Louis shrugs and gives Liam a small smile.
“Just wish someone liked me as much as Zayn likes Harry, is all.” He stares at Liam and Liam can only imagine the look on his own face. He opens his mouth, to do what, he’s not sure (tell Louis he’s beautiful, tell him he loves him, how about he just vomits his feelings everywhere) but then Louis is moving closer and Liam snaps his mouth shut, swallowing hard and hoping to god he’s not blushing again.
He startles when he feels Louis’ cold fingers encircle his wrist, bringing his burnt hand into the light. His pulse throbs and how can Louis not realize what he does to people. What he’s doing to Liam.
“Try not to do much with this and for the next few days. You don’t want to irritate the blisters.” Louis says, releasing Liam’s wrist and stepping back. He picks up the pile of quilts Liam had placed on his bed, and moves toward the door, humming a tune under his breath. He stops in the doorway and looks over his shoulder at Liam.
“Coming?”
Liam nods and moves closer to Louis.
“Louis, wait a sec,” And before Liam can think about it anymore, he gently pushes into Louis’ space and covers his mouth with his own. Louis doesn’t respond for a second and Liam is about to pull away, because what was he thinking, shitshitshit, but then Louis’ dropping the quilts and tangling his hands in Liam’s hair, opening his mouth under Liam’s.
Liams gasps and grips Louis’ waist hard with his good hand. He’s about to just tug Louis back into his room , fuck watching the movie, but Niall pops up at the end of the hall.
“Oi, mate! That’s wonderful for you and all, but this is tradition, and Harry’s getting teary.”
“Am not!” Liam and Louis break apart, laughing at Harry’s protests and Zayn and Niall’s laughter.
Liam stares at Louis and whispers, “I like you as much as Zayn likes Harry.”
Louis grins and opens his mouth to respond, but Liam cuts him off.
“I’m kind of in love with you, Louis Tomlinson.”
Louis grins even wider - his eyes get all squinty in that way Liam loves but has only gotten to witness a few times - and he responds, “I’m kind of in love with you too, Liam Payne.”